The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pleasure in presenting the Medal of Honor to Second Lieutenant John Gregory Bishop Adams, United States Army, for extraordinary heroism on 13 December 1862, while serving with Company I, 19th Massachusetts Infantry in action at Fredericksburg, Virginia. Second Lieutenant Adams seized the two colors from the hands of a corporal and a lieutenant as they fell mortally wounded, and with a color in each hand advanced across the field to a point where the regiment was reformed on those colors.